Just A Boy
by Tay1019411
Summary: Maddie and Jack finally have Phantom right where they always wanted him: in there lab, helpless, but everything is different now. Now, Maddie faces the truth about what Phantom really is.


**Just A Boy**

The boy was beginning to wake up. Well, Maddie knew he wasn't really a boy; he was a teenager. It was easy to see that with his not yet developed features and long, skinny limbs that seemed as if he was stretched out to his body's limit. Maddie was well aware that he was fifteen, but with the way he looked so helpless, lying on the examination table in the lab, he seemed as much of a boy as when her own son was younger.

Danny Phantom.

Maddie still couldn't believe it. After a year hunting him down, he was finally here, in the lab, right under her roof, but now, everything was different.

She looked at the haggard features of the ghost, noticing how he was sweat-drenched and had large bags under his eyes, making them look hollow. His skin seemed as if it was spread too tightly on his face, the sharp bones of his cheeks protruding. Maddie wasn't really sure if it was real or an optical illusion due to how deathly pale the boy was.

The boy groaned, bringing Maddie's attention to him.

He cracked his eyes open, the first time in the last twenty-four hours that has passed. Blurry green eyes peered up at Maddie, then down at himself. He looked at his gloved hand. Maddie didn't know what he was looking for, but he seemed to have found it, no longer giving his hand attention but looking at her instead with an odd, curious expression on his face as if he was wondering why she was there.

She came closer to him, pursing her lips when the boy winced when he tried to move. "Don't," she said, placing a hand on his arm. She wasn't surprised that they were the same temperature, not anymore. She had enough time to get over that fact. "You will tear open your stitches."

"My stitches?" he asked, his voice cracking. His eyes became suddenly aware, filling with pain, he gave a breathless gasp, jerking upward.

Maddie gripped his hand to keep him from clutching his abdomen, which was where the wound was. "You're in pain," she said, trying to make her voice steady. She wasn't expecting this. The morphine should have lasted longer, but then again, he wasn't exactly human. Maddie really didn't have a clue what this boy was anymore. "I'm going to give you some more morphine. Just hold still, don't move."

Phantom was looking at her, tears brimming his eyes, but he gave her a short nod to let her know he understood.

She dug out the needle and bottle of morphine as quickly as she could, prepared the needle, and injected it into his IV. Within moments, the boy relaxed, letting out a breath.

Maddie waited for a moment, letting the boy settle back down, but she couldn't wait much longer. "Do you remember what happened?"

Phantom nodded, eyeing Maddie. "There was this...guy. He was robbing the bank," he said, his voice still rasping from disuse. Maddie didn't like the sound of it, it only reminded her of how painfully vulnerable he was. She didn't know why, but she felt as if she needed to protect this boy despite her not having any clue what his true origins were. "I stopped it, but he pointed a gun at one of the people in there," he said, he was scrunching his eyebrows together as if he was trying to remember what happened, no doubt his mind was still cloudy from what he just went through. "It was a little girl."

Maddie nodded. She was there after all, pointing her own weapon at Phantom, at the time in fear that he might have done something, but now, she only scoffed at herself. She should have been pointing her weapon at the monster with the gun, terrorizing the bank.

"Then..." Phantom stopped, wincing as if he remembered too clearly of what happened next.

She traced circles in the boy's arm to soothe him. She couldn't imagine the pain he must have felt when the bullet tore through him. "You dove in front of the girl, and the man shot you."

They both met each other's eyes, an understanding passed through them. Maddie saw the boy tense. Phantom knew exactly what she was thinking; there was no way she wouldn't have noticed. After all, she knew exactly what should have happened to a regular ghost if shot by a human gun. It would simply not harmed them, but it harmed Phantom. It did exactly what it was supposed to do, as if he was just like any other human.

"You were shot in the right side of your upper abdomen," Maddie said, remembering all the blood. The ectoplasm mixed blood. "It nicked one of your ribs and was caught in another. You were lucky it didn't permanently damage any organs."

Organs.

She couldn't believe what she was saying. Ghosts weren't supposed to have organs, but that was what she found when she and Jack had to get the bullet out. That was what made Jack have to leave the room. He didn't have as big of a stomach when it came to seeing actual human insides. He was used to ghosts after all, but she had to stay. She had to save Phantom.

"After you passed out from all the blood loss," Maddie began, wanting Phantom to hear just how close it was, wanting him to realize just how much his life was in danger, "we took you back here, to our lab. This is where my husband and I work. We took you back here, to get the bullet out of you. Halfway through, we lost you. You stopped breathing. We didn't realize it but it nicked one of your lungs."

She stopped, having to catch her breath. She remembered all too well the complete terror she felt when his heart began to go into d-fib and how he just stopped breathing. The way his body flopped when she had to use the defibrillator on him.

She wiped her hands on her legs, still feeling as if she had his blood all over them, but she knew it wasn't there anymore. She made sure to wash her hands until she couldn't see any remnants of it, but she still felt as if the sticky liquid was there, reminding her just how easily it could have been there for a different reason, if she were to be the one to pull the trigger on him.

"I'm guessing it was a close one," Phantom said, not seeming to notice what Maddie was going through at the moment.

Maddie looked at him and to her horror, he was smiling at her. Actually smiling as if this brush with death didn't bother him so much. The woman shook her head, devastated by this. He should have cared more that he almost died; this wasn't right.

"What's wrong?" the boy asked, finally noticing Maddie's behavior. He made a move to console her by reaching to place his other hand on hers, it was bare, relieved of its glove from when they had to put the IV in him. The hand came up short, having been pulled back by said IV.

He looked over at it as if realizing it was there for the first time.

"You almost _died_," Maddie said, looking at the boy. He turned to her abruptly, forgetting the IV. "And, you don't seem to care at all."

"Well, why do you care?" The boy said, his tone a bit harsh.

Maddie winced at this knowing he had every right to say that, but it still hurt her just as much hearing it. She gave his arm a light squeeze. "You're just a boy," she continued, trying to brush off his comment, "you shouldn't be doing this."

"So?" he said, pulling his arm away from her grasp. "That didn't matter before."

"Do you understand?" Maddie asked, looking at him through narrowed eyes. If he didn't want to care about his well being, then she would, damn-it. "You almost died. This is dangerous. You have a life, don't waste it."

"I'm a ghost," he said. She would have fallen for the show of confidence he displayed in his statement, but that was before everything she saw. Now, nothing could convince her otherwise. He was somehow both human and ghost.

"No, you're not," she said quietly, but the conviction in her voice was strong. She couldn't stop the tears from forming in her eyes as she looked at the broken figure in front of her. For the first time in the year Phantom first appeared, she was able to see exactly who he was, and it scared her to see it because she knew she was wrong all along. He wasn't some all powerful, invincible being.

Dread consumed her as she stared at the horrible truth of it all.

"You're just a boy."


End file.
